Posted By The Denver Post On October 12, 2011 @ 9:21 am In Economy | No Comments

So John Malone[1] has surpassed Ted Turner[2] as America’s largest landowner, according to today’s Denver Post[3] – and not a moment too soon, what with the revolution brewing.

Say what? No, I don’t think America’s economic woes are going to lead to a parade of tumbrels ferrying billionaires like the chairman of Douglas County-based Liberty Media[4] off to the guillotine. If it didn’t happen during the Great Depression, why on Earth would anyone think it would happen today?

But Malone himself seems to be strangely insecure. At a Sun Valley media conference last year, Malone revealed[5] that he and his wife are a bit, um, paranoid about the implications of an economic meltdown. To wit:

Question: “What are you doing to protect against the weak American economy?”

Malone: “Well, my wife, who is very concerned about these things, moved all her personal cash to Australia and Canada. She wants to have a place to go if things blow up here. Canada has a lot more fiscal and bank responsibility than most places in the world and lots of natural resources. We have a retreat that’s right on the Quebec border. We own 18 miles on the border, so we can cross. Any time we want to, we can get away. It would probably be illegal, but we could go. Actually, our snowmobile trail goes right on the border.”

With the purchase of an additional 1 million acres in Maine and New Hampshire this year, the Malones have even more property on which to elude the vengeful mobs – or whatever it is that Malone imagines he needs his border fiefdom to “get away” from.